By: Alfisyah Dianasari )*
The government guarantees the availability of food and also the price stability of basic needs in the market. The public is also advised not to worry about food stability and to continue shopping as needed.
Continuing to strive for stability in staple food prices and national strategic, the Government will support each other through the National Food Agency in synergy with the Public Company Logistics Affairs Agency (Perum Bulog). This is because according to Azikin Solthan as a member of Commission IV DPR RI that the two great powers if they can be paralleled and support each other will be able to further ease each other’s burdens.
As the data obtained by Perum Bulog, the Central Java Regional Office, that in the province in March 2022 had around 55,095 tons of available rice stocks. Of course, this amount is considered to be a sufficient and relatively safe point to ensure the availability of food ingredients in the month of Ramadan until Eid later.
It was reported that some time ago there was a shortage of nine basic foodstuffs, including cooking oil. However, when it was confirmed again and the Commission IV of the DPR RI received a report from Perum Bulog, all these shortages can now be guaranteed to be fulfilled. In fact, one of the distributors of several staple foods that were scarce, such as cooking oil, was handled directly by Bulog itself.
As quoted from the official website of the DPR, Indonesia’s food stocks can be said to be positive and their availability has been guaranteed even until May 2022. So that people are advised not to panic too much because indeed in the face of the month of Ramadan until Eid al-Fitr later, all basic food ingredients have been confirmed to be adequate.
With the actual number already adequate regarding the availability of these 12 national strategic food commodities until the end of May 2022, even in Central Java Province itself it was reported that there was a stock surplus from January to April 2022, actually the challenge ahead is not only to guarantee food stocks. . However, it lies in how to continue to maintain the stability of the prices of these staple foods.
Because it could be that the availability is actually abundant and there is no shortage at all, but it turns out that there are certain parties who intentionally hoard, especially on the distributors who make it appear that on the market, certain foodstuffs become very scarce so that supply and demand can be played as they please and make prices soar.
Therefore, there must really be good synergy from the Government, namely good cooperation between the National Food Agency and Perum Bulog to not only ensure sufficient stock, but also continue to monitor or monitor the distribution of food ingredients so that the Government can control it more. more efforts that may be made by unscrupulous distributors to be able to play with prices on the market.
Distribution to the public must be guaranteed through various monitoring methods if prices are to be stable because supply and demand can be maintained. For this reason, the Regional Inflation Control Team (TPID) has actually directly tried to control inflation by reviewing and conducting strict supervision in warehouses and agents regarding the availability of food stocks and prices of basic commodities in the market.
The government is optimizing various ways to maintain food stocks and price stability for necessities in the market. The public is also expected to remain calm and not do panic buying in order to maintain a conducive situation during Ramadan.
)* The author is a contributor to the Press Circle and Cikini Students